Now, it’s time for an impromptu poem. Of sorts. Also, WordPress doesn’t let you click enter without including a space, so it looks a bit odd. Anyway…
Sitting around in the Curzon
Munchin’ a goat’s cheese pizza with carnalized onions on,
Why is nobody else here,
The screen is still dark and unclear,
Fear.
So, the first twenty minutes or so of me being alone in the cinema was awkward as hell, but that’s probably my fault for always arriving early. Maybe I kind of enjoy that feeling of being that weird person in the back, and imagining other people arriving later thinking: ‘Who’s that weird person in the back?’ Who knows? About eight other people did turn up in the end, so it was fine.
Moving on. I’d heard a load of great things about Past Lives, so I needed to watch it before it left cinemas. Na Young and Hae Sung, two close childhood friends in South Korea, are separated when the former emigrates to America, with ruminative vignettes of their separate lives playing out with brief online conversations before they finally reconnect in person. Big shout out to cinematographer Shabier Kirchner, who crafts masterful moments of emotion and meaning with a single image, whether it’s two childhood friends destined to walk different paths or Hae Sung questioning his journey in life as his pondering reflection follows him in the water. The film takes things slowly and is all the better for it. The conversations between Na Young (now Nora in her chosen English name) and Hae Sung when they finally talk to each other online are awkward and stilted (often physically, as Skype breaks up their speech into even bigger pauses), with reams of unspoken affection left unsaid. The soundtrack, much like their dialogue, is understated, but undeniably elegant and mournful, particularly as the narrative draws to its bittersweet conclusion.
Catch this awesome little rarity before it leaves your local arthouse-oriented cinema. Don’t see it at Cineworld. But feel free to purchase a goat’s cheese pizza with caramelised onions if it’s on offer. And feel free to write a brief low-quality poem afterwards if that floats your boat. You do you.